otter-note - Otter Shell

otter-note pins markdown notes above your desktop on a Wayland layer-shell surface. You can pin a note to a corner, edit it in place, and preview rendered markdown. Bind Super+N if you want it from anywhere. Notes persist as plain markdown files, so you can edit them with any text editor outside Otter Shell.

Commands

otter-note add "ship release"     # append a quick note
otter-note new                    # open the note editor
otter-note --pin top-right new    # pin to a corner
otter-note list                   # list all notes
otter-note clear                  # delete all notes
otter-note --path /tmp/notes.md add test note  # use a custom file

Editing notes

In edit mode, the layer-shell surface edits your markdown file directly. Press Ctrl+S to save, or close the surface and it saves on exit. Press Ctrl+M to toggle rendered markdown preview. In view mode, only the header buttons accept pointer and keyboard input. The note body is pass-through, so apps underneath keep receiving events.

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+S	Save note
Ctrl+M	Toggle markdown preview

Pinning

Use --pin to position the note surface in a corner before opening it:

otter-note --pin top-right new

Configuration

otter-note reads ~/.config/otter-shell/otter-note.conf:

notes_path = ""

notes_path: absolute path for note storage. Empty uses $XDG_DATA_HOME/otter-shell/notes.md, falling back to ~/.local/share/otter-shell/notes.md if XDG_DATA_HOME is unset

Hotkey setup

Bind otter-note new to Super+N in your compositor config for sticky note access from anywhere on the desktop.